


Rattled

by inthenetherworld



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Hurt with a little comfort, Miscarriage, cause the trauma of losing the baby means maybe youre damaged, kind of beetlelands at the end, maybe a oneshot, maybe not, shoutout dc miscarriage storyline, why do I torture them like this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:22:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25567387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inthenetherworld/pseuds/inthenetherworld
Summary: Lydia's old baby things are brought out for a garage sale, leading Barbara and Adam to relive a painful memory.
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Adam Maitland, Beetlejuice & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Barbara Maitland
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	Rattled

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if people are actually interested in reading just Barbara/Adam but I love them so here's this! I always have to throw Beetlejuice in there, though! 
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated(: more notes at the end!

“Adam?”

“Adam, i-it’s not here! I can’t find it anywhere!!” 

Barbara emphasized her last word with her arms, frantically gesturing around the room. Adam pops his head into the doorframe of the attic, walking urgently to his wife and laying gentle hands on her shoulders. 

“Barb, hun, slow down there. Although I wish I could, I don’t always know what’s goin on up there in that gorgeous noggin of yours!”

Barbara doesn’t even crack a smile or scrunch up her nose in that cute way like she usually does—which only worries Adam further. She shimmies out of his grasp and continues scampering around the room and poking her hands around in anything she can touch.

“The rattle, sweetie. I can’t find… her rattle.” Barbara stops dead in her tracks; frozen by her own words. She huffs out a defeated sigh and shakes her head to prevent the onset of frustrated tears beginning to well in her eyes. She goes over to sit on the edge of their bed, slumping down with a creak of the mattress and bowing her head to create a curtain of blonde waves around her face.

Adam approaches slowly and takes his own seat, sliding his hand over to Barbara’s which she immediately takes in her own. Without looking over to him, she begins to speak softly.

“I  _ know  _ that it’s stupid to get upset over some toy, but if it’s lost….Adam if it’s lost I’ll never be able to forgive myself! That’s the only memory—”

Barbara bites her lip, inwardly cursing at the voice crack for giving her emotions away.

“Barbara, honey, we’ve talked about this. You know there’s nothing wrong with needing something to... remember her by.” Adam painfully croaks out the last words before pulling Barbara into a tight embrace and tucking her head into the crook of his neck. They sit there quietly— focusing solely on the unnecessary rise and fall of each other’s chests.

Talking about it had never gotten easier. In fact, neither of the Maitlands could move past calling it “it.” It had taken them almost two years to work up the strength to go from “the baby” to “her” and it would probably take a few more to even consider saying the name they gave their unborn child out loud.

Both of them knew that it wasn’t good to repress their feelings towards what had happened, but it was kind of hard to give something so inherently horrible any kind of closure. It wasn’t just the loss of what was meant to be that weighed down their hearts, but the miscarriage itself. It took a toll on Barbara’s body and mind—which hurt Adam just as bad to watch helplessly from the sidelines as she suffered. So they didn’t mention it. At all. 

Then why would Barbara be...

“Barbara…why  _ were  _ you looking for the rattle?” Adam carefully lifted Barbara off his chest in an attempt to gauge her reaction, but the ghost had her eyes fixed blankly to a far-off space. When she spoke, her sing-songy voice was just above a whisper.

“You know the Deetzes are having a garage sale this weekend. Well, Delia was going through a bunch of Lydia’s old baby stuff that Charles had kept and it just… there were these tiny bottles a-and tiny shoes... and albums full of a tiny Lydia and I suddenly I started remembering everything. How our baby was just too tiny...”

Adam sucked in a breath and grimaced, but gave Barbara a nod to continue.

“Adam, there were just so many reminders of this lost fantasy of ours and I  _ couldn’t  _ do it. I ran up here because I needed to… damnit, I just needed to know that it wasn’t some dream! That she was real once…or at least almost real. So close to being real.”

“She  _ was  _ Barbara… she was. Remember that one time you felt a kick in your belly?”

Barbara’s frown slid into a small smile, eyes clouding up in a reminiscing stare.

“Yeah, and you left work in the middle of the day and drove to see me! And when your boss asked where you were going you just told him some awful dad joke… what was it?”

“I think it was a… oh yeah! How can you tell an adult snake from a baby snake?The baby snake has a rattle!”

The Maitlands collapsed into a fit of giggles; falling into each other’s forms. The lightness of the moment didn’t last long, however, as another silence fell over the room.

“And we bought the rattle that very next day.”

  
  
  


********

  
  


As the nostalgia seemed to hit its peak, the Maitlands decided they had to move on with their day; rattle or not. However, still feeling a bit too vulnerable to take their chances downstairs, they decided to do some tidying up in the attic and finally settled in with a puzzle. So when a knock came at the door, both ghosts froze. It could be Delia, wanting to coo over all of Lydia’s old toys again. At this thought, Barbara impulsively considered drawing a door and getting the hell out of there. But what the couple heard wasn’t Delia’s voice at all. It was deep, scratchy, and particularly unpleasant to the ears.

“Uhh… guys. Earth to ghosties. Can I come in or what?? You’re really leaving me hanging out here… you teases.”

“Uhm, sure Beej. What can we do for you?” Adam walked over to greet Beetlejuice at the door while Barbara stayed glued in her seat, almost folding in on herself.

This was the last person she wanted to see. Not that Beetlejuice hadn’t made improvements since he started coming around more often. And he  _ did  _ apologize to the Maitlands for all the groping and the teasing. Well he still did the teasing...but it was apparently slightly less pervy than before— according to demon standards. That being said, Barbara felt far too exposed to take on his usual jabs right now.

“Soooo funny story… I was looking through Lydia’s baby junk to see if any of that shit had any kind of value. I mean I doubted it. Human children are no more capable than literal rocks. But I looked around anyway. Was gonna give a ball or maybe one of those fake babies with the shiny faces to the newborn sandworms. All they ever get to play with are dead carcasses. So you would imagine that their teething toys aren’t nearly as colorful and fun as human ones. But anyway… came across this little buddy and Charles said that it wasn’t Lydia’s so Danika must have picked it up somewhere on accident..”

The puzzle piece Barbara held in her hand was dropped of its own accord as she rushed in disbelief to Beetlejuice’s side. She took hold of his wrist with the object in it and stared at it with big, watery eyes. There it was; clear as day. The rattle.

“Yanno, Babs. I think this is the closest you’ve ever been to me—voluntarily that is. Wanna kiss?”

Barbara locked eyes with the demon as he flinched back—expecting to be met with pure unadulterated fury. 

What happened was not that.

Barbara wrenched the rattle out of his fist with a little bit too much force than what was probably necessary. However, once she had it in her own grasp, the ghost softened immediately. She looked back at Adam before throwing her arms around Beetlejuice and squeezing hard. 

“Uhhh.” 

It ended as soon as it started, as Barbara jumped back at the noise, too caught up in the elation of the rattle to realize that she had just hugged Beetlejuice. On purpose. She nervously straightened out her dress before looking back up at the demon—who looked just as confused. 

“Thank you, Beej. For this…really. I know that you can uhhh.. struggle with feelings, but you need to know that this means more to me than anything.”

“That pipsqueak toy?”

“Yes.”

“A stupid ball with a stupid stick on the end and a stupid ribbon?”

“I wouldn’t say  _ stupid,  _ but yes.”

“Huh. The things that make you humans happy... I swear to god/satan.” 

The Maitlands shared similar facial expressions that they often found themselves sporting around Beetlejuice. Adam stepped forward and followed Barbara’s lead in giving the demon a brief and extremely awkward hug. 

“Well, anyway. Thank you, Beetlejuice. You could have taken it for yourself… or your sandworms I suppose, but you didn’t. That’s important.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get all mushy on me, you sexy beasts. But ahhh, but for real… why do you guys have a baby rattle?”

**Author's Note:**

> This ends on a cliffhanger just in case I decide to expand the story. I really want to write something where Beetlejuice simps so hard for the Maitlands (whether it would be romantically or not idk yet) that he goes into the Netherworld to try and find the child they lost. It really depends on how people respond to this oneshot and if I have the time and motivation because I wouldn't want to abandon it. (I didn't abandon freaky friday I promise). I just go back to school in like a month so things are getting crazy!
> 
> Anyway let me know what you think!


End file.
